Ateca named new Grace coach
Friday, January 29th, 2010Article by: Gene Henley / Chattanooga Times Free Press
Bob Ateca has been down this road before.
He has taken a downtrodden high school football team and lifted that program back to respectability and contention.
He'll get that same opportunity at Grace Academy.
Ateca left his offensive coordinator position at McCallie and was named the new football coach Thursday at Grace. He replaces Mark Mowery, who started the Golden Eagles football program and served as head coach for six years before resigning this offseason.
The Golden Eagles went 0-10 in 2009 after three consecutive playoff appearances, including a program-high seven wins in 2008.
"Grace has shown a high commitment to really wanting to have a quality program here," Ateca said. "It's kind of an opportunity for me to start at almost ground zero and build the program back up. We're challenged with getting enthusiasm to play football, since it's such a small school."
Ateca directed Clarksville High School to its first winning season in two decades in 2000, then set a high number of wins in a season (10) a year later. He was named Region 6-4A Coach of the Year in 2001.
He then took a job at Austin Peay State University, coaching there for six seasons and serving as the offensive coordinator from 2005 to '08. The Governors were No. 32 in Division I-AA in total offense in 2007 and had their first winning season in 10 years, going 7-4.
"I see a lot of parallels between Grace and Clarksville," he said. "They built facilities and we were able to turn the program around."
He said "there's something special" about directing a turnaround.
Grace athletic director Les Compton said Ateca was the school's first choice as Mowery's successor.
"Getting your first choice doesn't happen all the time," Compton noted. "We had over 60 resumes that came in after Coach Mowery's resignation, but after interviewing Bob, his name rose to the top of the pile. He has over 20 years of coaching experiences, but it seems he has a lot of tread on the tires.
"We hope he's a part of both our coaching and school family for a very long time."
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